Understand systematic inquiry, particularly action research, and how it can be used to examine
school curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices.
Objectives
1.Discuss the prevailing theories of what it means “to know” in educational practice.
2.Describe the nature, purpose, ethics, and limitations of educational research.
3.Compare and contrast the common qualitative methods of educational research.
Consider ethnography, case study, phenomenology, biography, and grounded theory.
4.Compare and contrast basic quantitative (statistical) analysis in educational research.
Consider descriptive, causal-comparative, correlational, and quasi-experimental design.
5.Interpret standardized achievement test scores from published reports.
6.Apply the learning by writing a professional research proposal.
a.Locate, evaluate, and report published research on a relevant topic of interest.
b. Compose a preliminary literature review of this topic.
c. Then create a research plan, which includes a research problem, purpose and question,
the setting, the participants, and the methods to enable you to answer the question.
Activities
1. Identify a suitable research topic of interest a. Search databases and distill sources to a manageable number. b. Write a topic statement and identify descriptors, then return to databases.
c. Redefine the topic if necessary.
2. Conduct a preliminary literature search of the topic a. The search must focus on of primary sources. b. Identify most current sources and work backwards. c. Locate theoretical articles, review articles, and seminal studies.
d. Scan articles: look for definitions, methodological strengths/weaknesses, and major
trends in this and other research.
e. Note gaps of knowledge or contradictions in the studies.
f. Note how each article relates to your topic, in terms of theory, concepts, principles,
and/or methodology.
3. Evaluate each research article by applying the following criteria
a. What is the bibliographic information?
b. What is the main point of the article? Problem being addressed? Purpose? Question
(if there are any stated)? Is the research question related to the
literature cited?
c. Describe the type of methodology: the setting, sampling, instruments/tools
intervention strategies, and procedures to collect data.
d. Are the procedures used to collect the data valid and reliable? Are the results clear
and are limitations to the results discussed?
e. Describe the major results (even if negative or unexpected). Is the
research question(s) answered based upon the results?
f. What, if anything is notable about this article?
g. How does this article relate to my research question(s) or interest?
4. Develop a preliminary literature review of the research topic a. Reassemble your notes and establish your line of argumentation (i.e., your thesis). b. Create subtopic outlines that trace your arguments.
c. Reorganize your notes according to the outlines.
d. For each subtopic, note relationships and gaps among studies.
e. Summarize at the end of the review.
f. Explain trends, patterns, and conclusions so as to transition to your specific problem.
5. Propose a specific research problem, purpose and question
--Describe one research methodology, justified by your literature review that could answer the question. It may be quantitative, qualitative or a mixture of the two.
Goal
Understand systematic inquiry, particularly action research, and how it can be used to examineschool curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices.
Objectives
1.Discuss the prevailing theories of what it means “to know” in educational practice.2.Describe the nature, purpose, ethics, and limitations of educational research.
3.Compare and contrast the common qualitative methods of educational research.
Consider ethnography, case study, phenomenology, biography, and grounded theory.
4.Compare and contrast basic quantitative (statistical) analysis in educational research.
Consider descriptive, causal-comparative, correlational, and quasi-experimental design.
5.Interpret standardized achievement test scores from published reports.
6.Apply the learning by writing a professional research proposal.
a.Locate, evaluate, and report published research on a relevant topic of interest.
b. Compose a preliminary literature review of this topic.
c. Then create a research plan, which includes a research problem, purpose and question,
the setting, the participants, and the methods to enable you to answer the question.
Activities
1. Identify a suitable research topic of interesta. Search databases and distill sources to a manageable number.
b. Write a topic statement and identify descriptors, then return to databases.
c. Redefine the topic if necessary.
2. Conduct a preliminary literature search of the topic
a. The search must focus on of primary sources.
b. Identify most current sources and work backwards.
c. Locate theoretical articles, review articles, and seminal studies.
d. Scan articles: look for definitions, methodological strengths/weaknesses, and major
trends in this and other research.
e. Note gaps of knowledge or contradictions in the studies.
f. Note how each article relates to your topic, in terms of theory, concepts, principles,
and/or methodology.
3. Evaluate each research article by applying the following criteria
a. What is the bibliographic information?
b. What is the main point of the article? Problem being addressed? Purpose? Question
(if there are any stated)? Is the research question related to the
literature cited?
c. Describe the type of methodology: the setting, sampling, instruments/tools
intervention strategies, and procedures to collect data.
d. Are the procedures used to collect the data valid and reliable? Are the results clear
and are limitations to the results discussed?
e. Describe the major results (even if negative or unexpected). Is the
research question(s) answered based upon the results?
f. What, if anything is notable about this article?
g. How does this article relate to my research question(s) or interest?
4. Develop a preliminary literature review of the research topic
a. Reassemble your notes and establish your line of argumentation (i.e., your thesis).
b. Create subtopic outlines that trace your arguments.
c. Reorganize your notes according to the outlines.
d. For each subtopic, note relationships and gaps among studies.
e. Summarize at the end of the review.
f. Explain trends, patterns, and conclusions so as to transition to your specific problem.
5. Propose a specific research problem, purpose and question
--Describe one research methodology, justified by your literature review that could answer the question. It may be quantitative, qualitative or a mixture of the two.